II 

Calendar No. 483 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3943 

To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of 

the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 14, 2024 

Mr. PADILLA (for himself, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. PETERS, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, 

and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 

and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

AUGUST 1, 2024 

Reported by Ms. CANTWELL, without amendment 

A BILL 

To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accelerating Net5 working, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic 

6 Research Act’’ or the ‘‘ANCHOR Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) U.S. ACADEMIC RESEARCH FLEET.—The 

4 term ‘‘U.S. Academic Research Fleet’’ means the 

5 United States-flagged vessels that— 

6 (A) have been accepted into, and are active 

7 participants administered within, the Univer8 sity-National Oceanographic Laboratory Sys9 tem; 

10 (B) are operated as oceanographic research 

11 vessels by research universities and laboratories; 

12 (C) receive funding from the National 

13 Science Foundation; and 

14 (D) have achieved designation as a mem15 ber vessel through a standard evaluation proc16 ess. 

17 (2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

18 the Director of the National Science Foundation. 

19 (3) OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSEL.—The 

20 term ‘‘oceanographic research vessel’’ has the mean21 ing given the term in section 2101 of title 46, 

22 United States Code. 


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1 SEC. 3. PLAN TO IMPROVE CYBERSECURITY AND TELE2 COMMUNICATIONS OF U.S. ACADEMIC RE3 SEARCH FLEET. 

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

5 date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall, in con6 sultation with the head of any Federal agency, university, 

7 or laboratory that owns or operates a vessel of the U.S. 

8 Academic Research Fleet, submit to the Committee on 

9 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 

10 the Committee on Space, Science, and Technology of the 

11 House of Representatives a plan to improve the cybersecu12 rity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Re13 search Fleet. 

14 (b) ELEMENTS.—The plan required by subsection (a) 

15 shall include— 

16 (1) an assessment of the telecommunications 

17 and networking needs of the U.S. Academic Re18 search Fleet, consistent with the typical scientific 

19 mission of that vessel; 

20 (2) in accordance with guidance issued by the 

21 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency 

22 and the National Institute for Standards and Tech23 nology, an assessment of cybersecurity needs appro24 priate for— 

25 (A) the ownership of vessels within the 

26 U.S. Academic Research Fleet; and 


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1 (B) the typical research functions and top2 ics of such vessels; 

3 (3) an assessment of the costs necessary to 

4 meet the needs described in paragraphs (1) and (2), 

5 including— 

6 (A) any necessary equipment, such as sat7 ellite communications equipment, software, 

8 high-performance computing clusters shipboard 

9 and shoreside, or enterprise hardware; and 

10 (B) estimated personnel costs in excess of 

11 current expenditures, including any necessary 

12 training, support, or logistics; 

13 (4) an assessment of the time required to im14 plement any upgrades required to meet the needs 

15 described in paragraphs (1) and (2) under varying 

16 budgets and funding scenarios; 

17 (5) the adoption of common solutions or 

18 consortial licensing agreements, or by centralizing 

19 elements of fleet cybersecurity, telecommunications 

20 or data management at a single facility; and 

21 (6) in consultation with any non-Federal owners 

22 of a vessel of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, a 

23 spending plan for the National Science Foundation, 

24 the Office of Naval Research, non-Federal owners of 

25 vessels of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, users 


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1 of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, or any com2 bination thereof, to provide funding to cover the 

3 costs described in paragraph (3). 

4 (c) CONSIDERATIONS.—The Director shall, in pre5 paring the plan required by subsection (a), consider— 

6 (1) the network capabilities, including speed 

7 and bandwidth targets, necessary to meet the sci8 entific mission needs of each class of vessel within 

9 the U.S. Academic Research Fleet for such purposes 

10 as— 

11 (A) executing the critical functions and 

12 communications of the vessel; 

13 (B) providing network access for the 

14 health and well-being of deployed personnel, in15 cluding communications to conduct telemedicine 

16 (including mental health care), counseling, 

17 interviews with crisis response providers, and 

18 other remote individual care and services; 

19 (C) as necessary to meet operations, 

20 uploading any scientific data to a shoreside 

21 server, including the copying of data off ship 

22 for disaster recovery or risk mitigation pur23 poses; 

24 (D) as appropriate, conducting real-time 

25 streaming to enable shore-based observers to 


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1 participate in ship-based maintenance or re2 search activities; 

3 (E) real-time coordinated viewing of— 

4 (i) scientific instrumentation so that it 

5 is possible to conduct scientific surveys and 

6 seafloor mapping with fully remote subject7 matter experts; and 

8 (ii) critical operational technology by 

9 manufacturers and vendors so that it is 

10 possible to carry out maintenance and re11 pairs to systems with limited expertise on 

12 the vessel, with fully remote subject-matter 

13 experts advising; and 

14 (F) as appropriate, enabling video commu15 nications to allow improved outreach to, and 

16 other educational services for, K–12 students, 

17 including occasional remote classroom teaching 

18 for instructors at sea to improve oceanographic 

19 access for students; and 

20 (2) in consultation with the Director of the Cy21 bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the 

22 Director of the National Institute for Standards and 

23 Technology, and the heads of other Federal agen24 cies, as appropriate— 


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1 (A) the cybersecurity recommendations in 

2 the report of the private scientific advisory 

3 group known as JASON entitled ‘‘Cybersecurity 

4 at NSF Major Facilities’’ (JSR–21–10E) and 

5 dated October 2021 as applied to the U.S. Aca6 demic Research Fleet; 

7 (B) aligning with international standards 

8 and guidance for information security, including 

9 the use of encryption for sensitive information, 

10 the detection and handling of security incidents, 

11 and other areas determined relevant by the Di12 rector; 

13 (C) facilitating access to cybersecurity per14 sonnel and training of research and support 

15 personnel; and 

16 (D) the requirements for controlled unclas17 sified or classified information. 


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Calendar No. 483 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3943 

A BILL 

To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and 

search Fleet, and for other purposes. telecommunications of the U.S. Academic ReAUGUST 1, 2024 

Reported without amendment 


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